Elizabeth Gent – Beth Gent

Evaluation: Ghost with the Most.

Elizabeth Gent / April 22, 2016

I really enjoyed this project. As soon as it was announced i had a character in mind. This is because i have been designing things in my spare time for about a year with this ‘Sad Ghost’ character. So being able to use it in one of my projects it was very fun.

My sister is a primary school teacher so we have loads of examples of children’s books in the house which helped me with the project. One of the best examples i found was the Pigeon series by Mo Willems. These are very simply drawn and have a clear style to them which i wanted to emulate.

The style i went with is cool toned colours and a theme of the all the characters having the same eyes (which would carry on to other books if i were to do more). I am much more comfortable in Adobe Illustrator so this project really leant itself to my existing skills.

The difficult theme of the breif was probably the hardest thing to come up with. At first i started with doing about alcoholism. I havent encountered this in my life (with any family) so it was hard to think of a child friendly narrative around this topic. It was hard to fit it into the story with the ghost and make it relatable for children, so i changed my idea to Internet safety and being lonely.

Internet safety is very important in todays society as everyone (including children) are using social media these days. My book handles all sides of this issue; being the one who is lying to make themselves look cooler so people will like them, giving out your personal information, talking to people you don’t know and them turning out not to be the person you expected. Hopefully this will teach children that it is important to both be yourself, and be careful. I think this book could easily be used in schools when being taught about safety from a young age. The language in the book i kept simple with some words that could trick the young reader like “Yacht” this is a word a child has unlikely to have encountered in other books and therefore will expand their vocabulary.

All in all i am very proud of my children’s book and will be getting it printed to see how my sister’s (year 4) class react to it next week.

I wouldnt change much about this book if i could start again, but would like to carry on with a series of books (with difficult topics similar to the one in Ghost with the Most). The only thing i would change would be to improve some of the drawings like the female ghost at the end looks a bit rushed in my opinion.

Evaluation (Enganche)

Elizabeth Gent / April 22, 2016

I enjoyed doing this brief, however it didn’t feel as creative as the other project. It was more serious, but i guess we need that because that is what is likely to be needed in the real world of design. I tried to keep to a very specific/grid way of designing. However, it definitely improved my use of indesign and taught me a lot about the software.

I chose the Enganche Venture Capital business as i thought it would be interesting to do a company profile that is both serious and mysterious at the same time. This allowed me to be very simple with the designs as a mysterious company wouldn’t want a flashy portfolio.

I chose not to use any photos in my project as i thought it made it look tacky when i tried it with a statue (which sounds grand and dignified but didn’t fit well in the grand scheme of the project). I instead kept to vectors and other simple images (like the logo).

The logo is repeated throughout the info booklet which reinforces the brand and is also used as a picture page (which is similar to the pop art style) which splits up the information. I struggled with making the logo at first as drew it myself and it looks 3D-ish so it was hard to do the dimensions correct, but i feel that in the end it turned out very nicely and fits to the brand well.

The added features like the business card, cheque and contract were all very useful for the brand to use in every day life and are therefore my favourite part of the project as a whole.

If i had more time or to do the project over, i would add a lot more to the booklet, such as; a letter head (useful for documentation), a website (with an application for funding process within), a poster and maybe even the uniform for the staff that would work promoting the prizes. All of these would stick to the simple theme and use the 6 colours outlined in the manual.

Covers and Inner cover pages.

Elizabeth Gent / April 20, 2016

This is the final cover for my book. I really like the way that it looks like his ‘treasure room’ Showing his wealth but Graham looks sad which shows that he isn’t happy with everything he has got.

This pattern was inspired by the similar page from ‘Pigeon found a hot dog’ (seen in the research) I chose a simple ghost (with the eyes from the rest of my characters)

This is a spread similar to a dedication page, without the dedication.

I made up a few books that are similar in theme to this book, which could have the same character. I like the spooky style trees which frames the page.

If the book got published all of the information would be on the second page. (at the minute there isnt any so)

(1st draft of the blurb)

(final back cover)

I added the website at the bottom and revised the blurb to be longer and more detailed.

Back cover

This gives a bit of perspective to the whole ‘Ghost’s world’ as the rest of the book is based in and around his house.

The clouds are kept the same throughout the book, different sizes and shades. I think this keeps with the theme of the book.

Colour Palettes, characters and font.

Elizabeth Gent / April 16, 2016April 17, 2016

These are the colours i have used throughout my book, basically everything is kept to these colours, with the addition of the text which will be dark grey. These colours i have chosen represent a dark mood that reflects the themes in the book, they are also very flat and cool toned, which is supposed to look like a life after death (morgue-y?)

Again, all of the characters are very dark toned, with accents of colour for some to make them stand out. I have kept all of the character’s eyes the same (apart from female ghost at the end) because i wanted it to be recognisable and cutesy.

The font i chose for my book is called Thurston, i really like it because it looks hand drawn which adds to the way i wanted the book to look. I chose to do it all in capital letters because the font looked better. I therefore realise that it is not grammatically correct but i still like it, i dont think this will affect the way children read it.

Narrative Ideas: Ghost with the Most

Elizabeth Gent / April 16, 2016April 17, 2016

The ghost (Graham) Struggles with alcoholism and loneliness. Never actually said that he is an alcoholic but cans and other alcoholic beverages will be placed within the images. He decides that he needs to focus on something new, so he makes friends (AA meeting?) after a while of getting to know them they invite Graham to a party. He is nervous to go but wants to fit in. Everyone else is drinking and he finds it hard to watch.

I really liked these pages with the layout of things but i am finding it hard to fit this storyline into a child’s perspective without making it inappropriate. It also struck me that children wouldn’t be in danger of drinking themselves at the specific age, but it would be a parent, or relative. This made it hard to think of what could happen in the story. I am going to change the narrative to meeting people online.

Revised Story:

Graham is lonely and rich, he decides to make a profile online but is scared that people wont want to be friends with a ghost, so he posts a fake picture of a human.

Graham then posts some status’ about wanting people to be friends with him etc. The only ones that get attention are the ones where he invites people to have a party (For free).

Someone called ‘Roberta’ messages him and he gets excited that someone actually wants to be his friend. He arranges to meet her at 7pm. As 7pm gets closer, Graham starts to realise his mistake and gets nervous and starts to think of ways he can make himself look human, to no avail. He panics.

The doorbell rings and Graham finds out that Roberta, the beautiful human girl is actually A ROBOT. Roberta had lied on her profile too! They eventually go their separate ways and promise not to lie online ever again.

Graham goes for a walk to reflect and meets a ghost at the park and decides it’s better to tell the truth and meet friends in real life first as you cant trust all of what you read online.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

I think this a good lesson for children to learn as more and more kids are allowed on the internet at a young age and safety is very very important. It also says that lying is bad which is always a good thing to teach kids.